A RAPIST who escaped justice for 20 years was finally caught by detectives using pioneering DNA technology.

It provided a link to a member of the Wythenshawe man's family, police said.

No match for 50-year-old Russell Bradbury's DNA had been found on the national database.

But a new technique known as `familial searching' linked evidence found on his victim to a member of his family.

He raped a 22-year-old woman in North Tyneside in October 1986 as she returned home from a night out. Bradbury grabbed his victim round the throat after she got off a bus, and after a struggle in which he threatened to kill her, he raped her in a subway.

Despite an extensive investigation by Northumbria Police, the original inquiry drew a blank.

Technology

Almost two decades on, it was revisited by detectives from the force's Major Crime Review section, which used advances in DNA technology to catch the rapist.

Bradbury had by then moved to Shayfields Road, Wythenshawe. Evidence taken from the victim was analysed and familial searching revealed a partial match with other profiles on the database, similar enough to suggest those named were close relatives.

After a programme of targeted swabbing, a full match with Bradbury was produced. He admitted a single charge of rape at Newcastle Crown Court and was remanded in custody to be sentenced on October 16.

His barrister Robert Adams said: "He knows it is inevitably a custodial sentence. This is a matter which, after 20 years, has come back to haunt him."

Outside court, Assistant Chief Constable Kevin Mathieson said: "Once again we've demonstrated that the passing of time need not be a barrier to finding offenders.

"This was an horrific assault on a young woman who has spent 20 years with the knowledge that her attacker was still free.

"It's extremely satisfying to know that a rapist has been taken off the streets because of our commitment to using pioneering technology in detecting unsolved crimes and the excellent work of our partners in the Forensic Science Service."